'Build to rent' means developers build housing with the intent of retaining the building and renting it out to lower-income families. shutterstock Australia’s state governments, as well as some ambitious local councils, community housing providers and...

The view of Australian banks on the risk that mortgage stress poses to our economy and the banks’ own viability is worrying. Shayne Elliott, CEO of ANZ Bank commented in this week’s Four Corners report: The reality is that housing loans are pretty good because they’re...

Forty years on, there is still resistance to mixing with the 'sort of people' who were segregated in social housing tower blocks. David Jackmanson/flickr, CC BY Public housing reform is again agitating the inner suburbs, just as it did four decades ago when...

Around one in seven Australia households either cannot get into housing at market rates or are struggling to pay the rent. shutterstock A new report by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) reveals, for the first time, the extent of housing need...

Campaigners to save Sydney’s landmark Sirius building from demolition had a significant legal win this week. Last year, the then state heritage minister, Mark Speakman, refused to list the Brutalist block of public housing apartments on the New South Wales Heritage...

Residents of high-density housing might value features such as balconies, but when roads get busy this increases exposure to pollution. Adam J.W.C./Wikipedia, CC BY-SA Many new housing developments are being sited along major traffic corridors. While it’s logical to...

A recent suggestion that new housing on inner-city public land should start from a presumption of 100% social housing prompted indignation in government circles. “We can’t condemn another generation of Victorians to live in housing poverty,” huffed the housing...

Vacant and unlit 'ghost' apartments are a source of public outrage in major cities around the world. leniners/flickr, CC BY-NC Vacant housing rates are rising in our major cities. Across Australia on census night, 11.2% of housing was recorded as unoccupied –...

It is not well appreciated that the requirements of affordable housing are related to – but not the same as – those for housing affordability. AAP/Sam Mooy Housing influences everything from productivity and employment through to intergenerational poverty and...

Looking at data, there is no evidence to support the notion that house prices have peaked or are on the cusp of a downward trend. House prices in Australian capital cities rose slightly in June after falling in May. But house price indexes only show what’s happening...

At the Ashwood-Chadstone estate, Port Phillip Housing Association has built high-quality homes, with no visible difference between the 72 private and 206 community housing dwellings. PPHA, Author provided The Victorian government’s recently released housing strategy...

Interest rate adjustments are crude and fail to target the problems within the housing market. Shutterstock Current market mechanisms need to be reformed to give better price signals to developers, and to direct subsidies to achieve the goal of affordable housing....

I have worked and researched in housing law for one-third of my life. When news of the Grenfell Tower fire broke, our network of tenant advocates and housing researchers was heartbroken and angry, but not necessarily surprised. People who know public housing in New...

Does the Australian government have the policy, organisational and conceptual capacity to handle the country’s A$ 6 trillion housing stock? We ask this question in a newly released research report. The answer is critically important to both household opportunity and...

Three years after New South Wales’ housing minister announced that all 579 public housing tenants in Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Sirius Building would be moved within two years and their homes sold, only 24 tenants are still resisting the move. So far, 151...

Most Sydneysiders are concerned about the effects of foreign investment on the local real estate market. Dave Hunt/AAP Sydneysiders are concerned that foreign investors, and particularly Chinese real estate investors, are pushing up housing prices, according to survey...

The Rental Vulnerability Index for Queensland shows the cumulative impact of factors affecting renters across the state. City Futures Research Centre Two new tools for measuring and visualising problems in our rental housing system are in the media this week. They...

Following Treasurer Scott Morrison’s outburst in April over the meagre supply outcomes delivered by state housing agencies, cool Treasury heads have prevailed in the budget. The Commonwealth has not withdrawn its support. Rather, it will negotiate clear targets under...

It’s unsurprising that in the lead-up to this year’s federal budget there was a lot of discussion about housing affordability as its centrepiece. Over the past 20 years price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios have doubled. Sydney’s price-to-income ratio is over 12,...

With housing prices still consistently in the news, could the ideas of 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill help improve affordability? In 2015, some landowners near the proposed Northern Beaches hospital in Sydney were offered more than twice the area’s normal...

Australians are concerned about housing affordability, so much so that 45.4% say they would be willing to see the value of their home stop growing to improve the situation, only 31.8% of those polled wouldn’t. An ANU poll shows 51.7% of Australians are also in favour...

Solving the affordable housing crisis is a high priority for state governments around Australia. This is understandable given the hyper-inflated property markets in many Australian capital cities. Rising concerns that interest rates will increase over coming years...

The Conversation , CC BY-ND There’s been quite a bit of speculation over whether Australia has a property market bubble – where house prices are over-inflated compared to a benchmark – and when it might burst. According to housing experts, there’s at least...

As rents soar in Melbourne and Sydney, the rental market in Western Australia has become more affordable for low-wage workers since the end of the mining boom. But many households still struggle to find affordable accommodation. Today Anglicare released its annual...

Labor will promise to ban direct borrowing by self-managed superannuation funds, as part of a housing affordability policy released on Friday to pre-empt the government’s package in next month’s budget. This “limited recourse borrowing” – where a creditor has limited...

Not all renters will be able to become – or want to become – home owners. AAP/Mick Tsikas Deloitte Access Economics’ Chris Richardson recently suggested that young Australians would be better off renting than trying to buy a house. He argued: … rents today make a lot...

Governments alone cannot bridge the gaps and support affordable housing for seniors. shutterstock A recent report raised concerns about the erosion of retirement income by ongoing rental or mortgage payments. The report by the Australian Institute of Superannuation...

Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison have channelled 1940s-era debates in their comments on housing affordability. AAP/Sam Mooy As politicians across Australia grapple with a fix for housing affordability, you might be forgiven for thinking this was the first time the...

A blockchain's ability to move assets from one owner to another allows less dependence on intermediaries. www.shutterstock.com An emerging technology, blockchain, could transform the way we buy and sell real estate by doing away with the hidden costs and...

In the first article reviewing The Conversation’s many articles on housing issues, the commentary about fiscal and supply-side issues was consistent. The same is not true for affordable housing due to the diversity of affordability issues. The issues have to do with...

The Conversation has published many articles by Australia’s foremost academics on policies that affect housing. In the lead-up to expected announcements in the federal budget in May, we review the arguments in the articles since January 2016 – 81 were identified, of...

Housing has become a central pillar of our welfare system. www.shutterstock.com Whether house prices have been inflated by limited supply, or because of transfers to investors and homeowners, government policy is now trapped in a vicious cycle. The wealth accumulated...